Jesse James Meets Frankenstein

The thing that makes this DVD special is the commentary track by Joe Bob Briggs. Joe Bob is a genius in his own right, and is super knowledgeable about any type of Grade B movies. Here he gives us the rundown of the cast and location history, and points out continuity gaffes which are so numerous that some of them would probably escape notice due to sheer volume without his help.

In the film Jesse and his gang have a rendezvous with fate with Dr. Frankenstein's granddaughter (Yeah, I know the title is inaccurate. It isn't the only thing in the film, either.) There are several subplots, most of which don't make sense, and possibly the single most stupefying ending in cinema history. The only thing really well done here is Igor's skull scar. Prepare yourself to laugh at everything else.

I watched the film without the commentary once, and with the commentary once. My advice is to just watch it with the commentary. Joe Bob makes sure you listen in whenever anything important happens (which isn't often) and provides plot summation throughout the film anyhow. Another reason is that sometimes the sound is poor and some of the cast (especially Narda Onyx and Estrelita) have bad accents and diction problems.

The movie gets five stars with Joe Bob's commentary turned on. With the commentary turned off it would get two simply as a lifetime achievement award for William Beaudine.

"The stuff" in question... isn't so good. I love schlocky B-movies as much as the next person, but Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter beats the original Frankenstein's Daughter in the dull department- and that's saying a LOT. I couldn't imagine watching the whole thing without Briggs funny and enlightening commentary. Buy this if you're a fan of the film of Briggs, but if you're expecting a classic horror or western movie- search elsewhere.

"Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter" flips the situation of "Billy the Kid versus Dracula" with the cowboy coming to the monster this time around. Jesse James (John Lupton) is being pursued by Marhsal MacPhee (Jim Davis; that is right, Jock Ewing himself), so he hides out in Baron Frankenstein's hacienda, which is now being run by his granddaughter Maria (Narda Onyx) and her brother Rudolph (Steven Geray), both of whom have pretty bad fake German accents. She is a chip off the old mad scientist's block, and promptly turns Jesse's less than intelligent sidekick, Hank Tracy (Cal Bolder), into a bald zombie now named Igor. She has been experimenting with brain transplants on the local young boys and that has not been working out so well.

Believe it or not "historically" this film takes place between the disastrous James gang attempt to rob a bank in Northfield, Minnesota and Jesse's death (Jesse even calls himself "Mr. Howard"). There is also the Wild Bunch, led by Butch Curry, so that a large part of this film is a relatively straightforward western. It is only when Hank needs a doctor that Jesse ends up over at the Frankenstein place; however, I defy you to explain why Juanita (Estelita Rodriquez) would take anybody back there now that she has finally succeeded in getting away from the crazy sibling tag team. This film is literally a collision between these two genres, like Hittleman wrote two scripts for two different genres and then mixed them together.

If for some reason you feel compelled to watch this film, then I would strongly suggest you check out the DVD version, which benefits from being presented by Joe Bob Briggs. That alone has got to double the entertainment value of watching "Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter." If you decided to do a drive-in double feature by screening both this one and "Billy the Kid versus Dracula," the order in which you view the two films is pretty much irrelevant (i.e., I have no opinion on which order would either provide the most fun or result in the least amount of harm to your cinematic sensibilities).